The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1887-09-22
THE TROPHIES OF THE WAR.
A Glance at the Captured Confed-
crate Flags i'm Washington.


Recently in walking through the i'm
mense granite pile of the State, War and
Navy Departn ents, l was taken with the
curiosity to see the battle flags Which
have set the country in an uproar. Turn
ing to right from the main corridor of
the building on the second floor, entered
the commodious apartments of the Ad-
jutant- Generals Office, and found myself
confronting, at corner desk in one of the
rooms, rather low statured man, of
well-fed form and placid face. with his
coat off like an ordinary clerk, bending to
his work, alternately mopping the heat
from his forehead and signing orders.
This individual looked as little as possible
like kindling the memories of great re-
bellion or starting the world on flame in
any quarter. The heat of the day seemed
all-sufficient for his energies. All the
same, it was Gen. Drum, Adjutant-Gen-
eral of the United States Army, whose
autograph on slip of paper addressed to
Mr.. Cleveland, few weeks ago, and
recommending the distribution over the
country of a variety of tattered bunting
in the garret of the War Office, set the
country by the ears, and is likely to play
a considerable role in a coming campaign
for an American President. had been
| told that Adj.-Gen. Drum was extremely
sensitive to the inquiries of visitors con-
cerning this same bunting; any mention
of the sore subject having come to act on
| his nerves like the flutter of certain other
flags of those on Spanish bull. was
agreeably surprised, therefore, on inform
| ing this gentleman that had witnessed,
in the old days of the rebellion, the spec
tacle of the arrival of many of these flags
in the War Department, fresh from the
battle-felds on which they were captur-
ed, and of my wish to again inspect them,
at being met with the blandest of smiles
and promptly put in charge of an attend
ant with full instructions to aid my mis-
sion.
Carried by an elevator five stories up,
under the roof of the War Department,
almost burning in this Washington sum-
mer weather, the key being turned by my
guide in the door of an attic room, stood
an instant later in little space. hardly
more than ten feet square, nearly within
reaching distance on all sides of these bat
tered mementos of the war, the very men,
tion of which has set afire the hearts of
sixty millions of people-a few rags sat-
urated with the explosive wash of patriot
ism! But the first thought on seeing
them in this pent-up space of attic is of
the smallness of the cause to the size of
the effect The flags heaped about the
room appear at first sight only handful
at the most, but counted separately there
are $50 in all, over five hundred of them
being Confederate and the remainder be-
ing Federal flags recaptured from their
captors. One-half of the entire number
are attached to their slaves as they were
originally taken, the flags Of the two sec
tions being stacked in separate masses
against two sides of the room, facing the
other half folded and protruding from
pigeon holes on the opposite walls. The
sight of the Stars and Stripes keeps al
ways familiar. But the first look at the
dark red heap of the banners of rebel |
lion, piled here against the side of the at
tic, blots out twenty-five years from the
memory and brings back, as if it were
yesterday, the red years when they waved
at the head of their regiments. There is
hardly a flag among them all that has not
its history recorded in the book in the |
hands of the keeper of the room. All |
nearly are riddled with bullets, and many,
like those carried through such battles as
Wilderness and the second Bull Run, |
were shot literally into tatters and al
most unrecognizable sprays of rag.
The contrast in the appearance of the |
Southern and Union standards, is signif-
cant in the history of the war. The lat
ter are rugged on clean, polished poles,
and are of firm, rich material, many of
them of silk, showing an abundance in
the North of the fabrics of which they |
contenued to be made. The ma aiority of |
the Confederate flags are of the wretched-
est shoddy bunting, miserable in color, as
in substance, while great numbers of
them are mounted on rude, Embarked |
gads and saplings, hastily cut from the
woods on the Misunderstanding the block
ade and the pinching days when war had |
fallen on a section without manufacture,
and the intense, desperate purpose of a |
people who forgot seemliness and absorb |
ed every thought but the winning of
their fight
Many of the flags lying folded in the
boxes and taken out and exhibited by the |
Guardian of the room, recall still more |